Arts and Culture

Lace up to save lives. The Julie Rogers’ “Gift of Life” will host an inaugural 5K Run/Walk Saturday, Oct. 1, in downtown Beaumont to increase awareness of two cancers that affect hundreds of Southeast Texans each year and to kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

For 17 years the “Gift of Life” has been the leading proponent of breast cancer awareness in Southeast Texas, providing free diagnostic tests and access to treatment for those medically underserved in the area.

Some of the biggest entertainment this summer in Southeast Texas comes from the smallest of characters – Southeast Texas kids.

Community theaters, like The Betty Greenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Port Arthur Little Theatre and Orange Community Players, offer constructive summertime fun for children, culminating in stage performances for all audiences, and the curtain is about to go up.

The dust has barely settled from the Lutcher Theater’s 2010-2011 season and folks are already calling trying to purchase their season tickets for the 2011-12 season. This year’s lineup boasts some pretty big productions coming to our fair neighbors in Orange, and if we can make one recommendation, that would be to go ahead and get your tickets early.

The bouncing bazaar known as the Merchant Soiree returns April 14, hoping to host many good fellows at Goodfella’s. In the words of Shakespeare, the merchants invite you to buy with them, sell with them, talk with them, walk with them—at what’s squaring up to be the biggest and most lovely Soiree yet.

While we harbor no disrespect for the Wall Street Journal who called us “that scrappy little paper from Southeast Texas,” we prefer to think of ourselves as simple seekers of the truth. We’re of the opinion that headlines and sound bites never tell the whole story. Our readers demand all the facts, facets and flavors of every story or event. And, they expect to be informed, educated and stirred to action.